Sext Up Kids: How Growing Up in a Hyper-Sexualized Culture Hurts Our Kids (2012)

The powder keg that is porn culture has exploded in the lives of North American children. From thongs and padded bras for 9-year-old girls to "sexting," 24-7 internet porn, and unfiltered social media, kids today are bombarded with commercial sexual appeals like never before.
In this astonishing new documentary, award-winning documentary filmmaker Maureen Palmer (Leaving Bountiful, How to Divorce and Not Wreck the Kids) explores what this radical transformation of the culture means for young people, parents, and our very notions of childhood. Palmer interviews researchers who have been tracking how the accelerating pressure to be sexy -- and sexual -- is changing kids' behavior and undermining their health. She sits down with parents and educators struggling to help kids navigate...read more

The powder keg that is porn culture has exploded in the lives of North American children. From thongs and padded bras for 9-year-old girls to "sexting," 24-7 internet porn, and unfiltered social media, kids today are bombarded with commercial sexual appeals like never before.

In this astonishing new documentary, award-winning documentary filmmaker Maureen Palmer (Leaving Bountiful, How to Divorce and Not Wreck the Kids) explores what this radical transformation of the culture means for young people, parents, and our very notions of childhood. Palmer interviews researchers who have been tracking how the accelerating pressure to be sexy -- and sexual -- is changing kids' behavior and undermining their health. She sits down with parents and educators struggling to help kids navigate puberty in a hypermediated cultural environment that no longer seems to recognize or respect the developmental needs of children. And she talks to teens and pre-teens who share eerily casual insights into the routine role sex plays in their lives.

The result is a stunning exploration of the sexualization of childhood and a startling wake-up call for parents who still think their own children are immune to the excesses and influences of today's sexed-up youth culture.

Directed by Maureen Palmer, and produced by Rick LeGuerrier and Timothy M. Hogan of Dream Street Pictures in association with CBC.

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